This recording is almost a decade old now. Its place however is
entrenched by virtue of excellent performances and a good recording,
fine booklet notes and a sensible programming policy. This means
that we get both Hartmann quartets juxtaposed with Eisler’s only
venture into the genre.
Hartmann’s First Quartet was dedicated to Hermann Scherchen, whose
influence on contemporary composers is, I think, not yet fully
appreciated. Though completed in 1933 it had to wait until 1936
for its first performance which was given by the Végh Quartet
which also, incidentally, premičred the Second. It opens with
sighing figures, portamenti that sound vaguely folk-like, Semitic
perhaps, but could just as easily have a Magyar origin. These
falling figures recur throughout the tersely argued writing. Like
his exact contemporary
Mátyás
Seiber, Hartmann shows the influence both of Berg and Bartók
at this time, the latter especially in terms of the rhythmic charge
that animates the seedbed of the music-making. But Hartmann’s
own individual voice is perfectly audible, not least in the rapt
Nocturnal that is the second movement, one that presages cool
unease – little soliloquies and unison passages enshrining both
reserve and taut dance themes alike. The bell-chimes in this movement
give the quartet its nickname,
Carillon. The driven folk
and March themes of the finale are also not entirely unrelated
to the kind of thing that Seiber was doing – unleashing the potent
potential of pent up earthy dynamism.
The Second Quartet was Hartmann’s last completed chamber work.
It shares certain of the trajectories of the earlier work, not
least the concentrated melancholy of the opening introductory
section. The Toccata-like ensuing passages are harmonically and
polyphonically very much more advanced though than the 1933 quartet
and the central movement demonstrates the expanding expressive
depth of the writing. This is a Mahlerian lament of raptly sustained
length, thirteen minutes or so, and deeply moving in its cumulative
effect. The finale is brittly exciting with some mordant March
patterns and skittering solo voicings. Here too the music has
moved away from the more unambiguous influences of the 1933 quartet.
The Eisler Quartet is a rather different kind of work, which offers
quite a brusque 12-tone take. The variational first movement is
unsettled – but logical, precise and controlled. Not surprisingly
the dance and March patterns that mark out these quartets make
an appearance in the second and final of Eisler’s two movement
quartet. Though there is a retrenchment and a calming around 2:40
in, the music then recovers its tensile drive before ending very
much unresolved and up in the air.
This fine disc makes a strong case for these three quartets. If
you want an equally persuasive view of the First Quartet you can
try the Zehetmair Quartet on ECM 465 776-2 where it’s coupled
with Bartók’s Fourth. For Hartmann adherents a much more involved
look and a much more expensive one is offered by the recent three
CD release on
Cybele
CYBKIG001. This set includes both Quartets
, the Little
Concerto for String Quartet and Percussion, the Chamber Concerto
for Clarinet, String Quartet and String Orchestra, and – fascinatingly
- adds documentary conversations and interviews with the composer
(c.1962) and also with his son, Dr. Richard P. Hartmann in 2009.
I admit this is more for the Hartmann specialist. For the generalist
this Nimbus release offers real rewards.
Jonathan Woolf
see also review
by Gavin Dixon
Vogler Quarett Berlin 
